Conversations:
Conversations: Connecting and Learning with Persons who are DeafBlind (Video)
Natural Conversations with Persons who are DeafBlind (Text only) is adapted from Chapter 4 of Miles and Riggio, eds., Remarkable Conversations: A guide to developing meaningful communication with children and young adults who are deafblind. Watertown, MA: Perkins School for the Blind, 1999.
Learn More About Communication
Teaching Children Who Are DeafBlind:
Communicating with Children Who Are DeafBlind
Open Hands, Open Access courses:
- Open Hands, Open Access (OHOA): Understanding Communication Principles
- OHOA: Emergent Communication
- OHOA: Progressing from Non-symbolic to Symbolic Communication and Complex Language
- OHOA: Touch for Connection and Communication
- OHOA: An introduction to Sign Language and Braille
See all 26 OHOA DeafBlind Intervention Modules.
Join FAVI for some instructor-led OHOA professional development!
Please contact Shelly Voelker (email shellyv@ufl.edu) for more information about instructor-led OHOA training.
Learn about Assessment of Communication
Communication Matrix:
The West Virginia Department of Education’s Communication Matrix Intervention Modules “Communication Matrix Life After the Assessment: The Foundation for Intervention”; “Essential Strategies”; followed by videos for the various levels where an individual is functioning as identified on the Communication Matrix.
Everyone communicates:
“Children who are deaf-blind (sic) are communicating all the time. Some children communicate in very obvious ways: speech, signed communication, sign language, pictures and drawings, voice output boards, etc. Other children may communicate in more subtle ways: moving you to an object, standing near a desired object, eye gaze, withdrawal, change in muscle tone, self-injurious behaviors, etc. In many cases, the challenge to service providers and family members is to give the child a more socially appropriate way to communicate. The new system, however, must work as well for the child as the way she or he has communicated in the past or the child will have little motivation to use the new system.”
(from Fact Sheet: Strategies for Creating Communication-Rich Environments for Children who are Deaf-Blind, by California DeafBlind Services)